The fabrication of magnets, vacuum systems, power conversion components, instrumentation, and other systems has been ramping up over the last 6 months. The first few components of each type were fabricated in house, but most are contracted to upstate NY businesses. The following is an illustrated series of snapshots of activities.

But what if large crystals are not available? A team of scientists at MacCHESS and the University of Toronto is pushing what is possible for small protein crystals at storage ring sources.

Over the past decade, such strange entities as magnetic monopoles, Majorana fermions, and even Higgs modes have been predicted and identified inside materials at low temperatures.  The goal of learning to manipulate these new quanta for technological purposes is a grand challenge for science, predicted to spark a "second quantum revolution".  Among the intriguing zoo of new particles which exploit the topological properties of electronic wavefunctions, the Weyl fermions (which are charged, massless, and chiral) were originally postulated in the 1920s but have never bee

Louisa Smieska and Ruth Mullet were surprised to find barium in the azurite blues of medieval illuminated manuscript pages. Azurite, a soft, deep blue copper mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits, has been recognized since ancient time. However, the trace element barium is more often associated with modern paints, and, according to the researchers, has never been reported in illuminated manuscripts before.

CBETA tests two energy-saving technologies for accelerators: energy recovery and permanent magnets. An energy recovery linac (ERL) like CBETA reclaims the energy of a used electron beam instead of dumping it after the experiment. The recovered energy is used to accelerate the next beam of particles, creating a beam of electrons that can be used for many areas of research. The beams are accelerated by Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) units, another energy-efficient technology pioneered at Cornell.

This is a time when we focus on maintenance of the synchrotron and CESR, upgrading systems and equipment, and preparing for CHESS-U. Brief summaries of just a few of the Summer Down projects are below:

This summer, we are upgrading the safety system at G-line. The upgrade will include PLC (touch screen) displays at all of the G-line hutches and magnetic door locks on the hutches in place of keys. Over 800 wiring connections have been made so far as part of this upgrade, and several hundred feet of old cables have been removed from wire trays.

Like most years, the first day of the meeting covered facility-wide improvements and programs, a student paper prize, a poster session, tours and dinner banquet. The second day this year was special, however, hosting two science workshops as well as the annual meeting of the INCREASE organization.

The process they observed uses CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) sites, where the cell’s DNA can be snipped to insert additional DNA.

Biologists use CRISPR for genetic engineering experiments, but cells may have evolved the mechanism as part of a defense system. The cell uses these locations to store molecular memories of invaders so that they can be selectively eradicated at the next encounter.

The coalition hosted its 23rd annual event on Tuesday, May 16, 2017; this year’s theme was “Investments in Scientific and Educational Research: Fueling American Innovation.” The CHESS poster “The future of synchrotron science” showcased work by David and Chris, displaying how the investment in education at CHESS produces outstanding results.